It's been an incredible year for animals in London. Apart from Alex's Mad Monkey, we had the London Whale and then, this weekend just gone, the absolutely incredible London Elephant. I swear, I have never, ever seen anything like it in the city and I doubt we will see its like again.
Parading up from Horse Guard's parade along the Mall, and down Picadilly to Trafalgar Square doing all sorts of odd and funny peculiar things along the way - this was pure real joy. I actually thought I was tripping at one point. We were singing all the elephant songs we could remember - 'Little Blue', 'Nelly the Elephant', 'Effervescing Elephant' and so on. Valentine even broke into a jig at one point.
I hope if you live here, you saw it and if you don't that you get chance to one day.......
Blessings on those with elephant sized imaginations and ambitions - and particularly on those who managed to keep the Health and Safety Nazis at bay -a gargantuan task in itself .....but oh, what a sight!
May you Plod preposterously on.......
11 comments:
Wow. It looks damn amazing. Though slightly creepy. I wish I'd been able to see it!
The London whale? What's that? Only thing that reminds me of is Moby Dick!
With greedy ears I learned the history of that murderous monster against whom I and all the others had taken our oaths of violence and revenge.
A whale swam up the Thames and got stuck there this January. We managed to see it by Battersea Park when we were heding West but sadly it died later that day as it was being 'liberated' - a bit like the Iraqis right? Nice quote Stella but I don't think it was as big as Moby Dick - a mere nipper in fact - but a wonderful sight nevertheless - and my friend Lou who works for the Natural History Museum said it has been preserved and will be on display there soon.
And Nellee, you're right - the elephant did spray the crowds - there was a great moment when it absolutely drenched a row of policemen and Traffic wardens. A huge cheer went up naturally as you can imagine............
ta for that! I was told about the elephant but missed it. I would have been halucinating myself. lol.
Oh, that London whale. Poor creature...
Eh. Are the cops not terribly liked in the UK? I'm planning on applying to Police school, hopefully becoming a mounted police. But then, the police force is unusually liked and trusted by the citizens in this country :)
Hi Stella, noticed that you are finnish, too...well I think that most of us would cheer very loudly if we saw something like that happened, and especially to traffic wardens! I have always been kind of afraid of policemen, though I seldom do anything illegal, of course =)
"fat women in size too small jeans and stetch mark wrinkled bare tyres..." LOL!!!
Yes, it was all in good humour - and I think the police saw that. The Traffic Wardens are another matter - a humourless bunch of jackals organised by private companies to extract the maximum amount of money from the generally well behaved - and swiftly becoming the most disliked minority in the city - regardless of race, creed and sexuality!
rant, rant, grumble, grumble, bah humbug.......
ride on Stella
Aloizii, sinäkin? I liked the story on your blog :) About poor Sergei.
Aye, Stephen, no one likes traffic wardens. I know they're just doing their jobs, but they can be pretty darn difficult about it. (Not that I haven't met any cops who can't be difficult too, but eh, it's just in the human nature.) But I guess in such a dull job, you have to stir up trouble yourself.
But I've friends in the UK who've told me that, at least in the outskirts of London, the Police aren't terribly appreciated...
ride on Stella
Hopefully I will!
Yep, Nell, I've been planning on joining them for a long time now :) I just have to finish my schooling and get some work experience before I can apply!
And yeah, there are bad cops in every country. It's sad, but they're just humans, and humans tend to be assholes to eachother :( Some cops just don't understand that they don't have the prerogative to act freely on their emotions.
hey next time nelle
We have a few shows coming up over summer - i will post more details soon - and we will be playing the film again soon I am sure. The BFI are releasing it on DVD with our soundtrack so I expect we will roll it out
not for a while i fear - probably next year now but we may be doing a couple of one off shows - details as they come..
The Elephant was in Antwerp in June, it was - indeed - incredible, I felt seven years old, tears came to my eyes, and I was not the only one.
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